Colonial Despatches

Educated in Glasgow and Oxford, Francis Richard John Sandford joined the education department of the privy council office in 1848 and became its assistant under-secretary of state in 1854.1 After secondment to organize the International Exhibition of 1861–2, for which he was knighted, Sandford succeeded Thomas Frederick Elliot as assistant under-secretary of state for the colonies in 1868.2 With Sir Frederick Rogers he submitted a report in 1869 concerning the efficiency and cost of the Colonial Office, which advocated for the creation of a new general department beside the geographical ones, a second assistant under-secretary, and a raise in salaries of the junior clerks.3 Returning to the education department as permanent secretary in 1870, he focused on expansion of the elementary school system where his activities were described as specially moderate and sensible.4 In 1885 he became the first permanent under-secretary to the newly created Scottish Office, and was raised to the peerage in 1891.5

• 1. Gillian Sutherland, Sandford, Francis Richard John, Baron Sandford (1824-1893), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
• 2. Ibid.
• 3. B. L. Blakey, The Colonial Office, 1868-1892, (Durham: NC: Duke University Press, 1972), p.25-29.
• 4. Sutherland, Sandford, ODNB.
• 5. Ibid.